Analyze

While on her way to a lunch date, Alice's witnesses a women killed in a crosswalk after being struck by a car. The women resembles Alice from her hair style to the mode of heels she is wearing, and for all intent and purpose, it could have been Alice lying lifeless in the intersection. Everything about Alice's life exclaims success, she is a senior partnership at a prestigious law firm, independently wealthy and propertied. Alice works hard in Boston to get to the top of her career. The horror of that day is not soon lived down, and Alice is deeply affected, by that unforgettable day.

Putting her achievements into perspective, Alice examines her life, using the finality of the accident to determine whether or not she is happy with her life. She is engaged to a hard working man in the same profession; her work is lucrative; she's doing everything that anyone can ever expect of her and more: until the day of the accident, she thought that she was happy.

It's not easy to being at the top of her profession. Alice is tired of the loneliness that her position entails. Everyone expects her to make life sacrifices that are irrational and ineffective. She is losing too many things in the process, like her loving and nurturing-self, not to mention that her social life is hopeless. There are very, very few other women in the law firm, and no other female senior partners. Alice is further distressed to see bright young women, who she can identify with, allow themselves to be trapped in the same professional snare that entangles her. Life at the top of the heap is troublesome, from where she is, she sees an ominous future for her. Deciding that happiness is more important than the road to wealth, she lets it all go and takes a chance on herself. The memory of that day hunts Alice, and because of it, she cannot ignore how she feels about herself. Alice imagines herself in the place of the dead women. The image is enveloping, emotionally draining and beyond immediate mending: the years of intensive and aggressive habitude, which are requisite in her profession, have depleted her vitality to the marrow. Alice fights depression; the more she fights the more constrictive its grip becomes.

One month passes since the accident and Alice knows hat